Yo-Yo Ma

Creator: Todd Rosenberg | Credit: © Todd Rosenberg Photography Copyright: © Todd Rosenberg Photography 2010

I never knew that Yo-Yo Ma was a musical prodigy. A child of musician parents (his mom was a singer, his dad was a University professor of music), Yo-Yo began at the age of three to play the drums, viola, violin and piano. At four he told his dad he wanted a "big" instrument--so his father introduced him to the cello. At five he was performing before audiences and at seven, he had already played for two presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

I love listening to Yo-Yo Ma play classical music but I really love his versatility and playfulness with other genres of music as well...He loved collaborating with other artists of all types. Here is a selection of duets with renowned musicians:

With James Taylor Sweet Baby James and Here Comes The Sun

With Bobby McFerrin Hush Little Baby

With Chris Botti My Favorite Things

With Alison Kraus Simple Gifts

With Kathryn Stott Over The Rainbow

Joan Baez Interview

Krista Tippett On Being Interview with Joan Baez November 2024

Joan Baez marching alongside James Baldwin

Documentary Trailer, Joan Baez I am a Noise

Who hasn't admired Joan Baez...For the beauty of her stellar voice, for her songwriting, for her political activism, for her poetry and her painting...She is a true icon of our generation!

Krista Tippett recently produced an wonderful and revealing interview with Joan Baez which I share with you here...In her own words, “You know, I am over 80 years old and I wanted to leave something truthful."

Diamonds and Rust debuts on a pair of charts in the U.K. this month as people discover the tune for the first time

Maira Kalman on Remorse

Kalman’s beautiful work has often graced the covers of New Yorker Magazines…

To say Maira Kalman is an illustrator is to totally limit her. She is a true artist in every sense of the word...she writes, she paints, she tells stories...and explores the human condition through personal zany projects that are wildly innovative and full of joy and pathos, honesty and deep feelings. Aside from a series of wonderful children's books (some of my favorites of that genre), she has written a series of eclectic adult ones as well, including an illustrated quirky version of William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White's The Elements of Style, a history book, written on the occasion of Barak Obama's election, about democracy and politics entitlted The Pursuit of Happiness, and a book on her mother, Sara Berman's, closet.

The Book of Remorse is her latest. The New York Times wrote about her and her recent offering in a recent article which I share with you here.

Great Gifts in our ArtSHOP

Charity of the Week: American Civil Liberties Union

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.